Conference and Doughnuts

I think I mentioned in my last post that this weekend was our church's semi-annual General Conference. If you are not familiar with this, it is a two day conference put on by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  It is broadcast worldwide on many tv and radio stations. Several church leaders, both men and women, talk on a variety of topics. General Conference is always inspiring, uplifting and full of great counsel. 

You know how in my last post I talked about my guilt issue? Well, many talks that I listened to this weekend made me feel so much better. There were talks on how it is easy to get discouraged, but there are so many reasons not to be. There were talks on turning to our Heavenly Father who loves each one of us very, very much in times of need and discouragement. There were talks on the Savior and how His life and teachings offer us hope and comfort in every situation. 

There was even a talk on how fathers can raise great daughters. I loved this one and told Jeff to go back and listen to it again.  :)  My favorite part was this quote "The most important thing a father can do for his daughter is to love her mother." Pretty great advice, huh? I told Jeff that the reason I wanted him to listen to it again was not because he needs to do better. I wanted him to listen to it because it emphasizes the importance of what he does for us as a family every day. His daughters are blessed to have him as a father. So blessed.

One thought that kept crossing my mind as I listened this weekend was what a great responsibility I have as a mother to raise strong daughters in this often troubled and scary world. There are so many negative influences out there that my little sweeties are going to come in contact with all too soon. I want to raise them to be strong, self confident women who won't let others dictate what type of women they think they should be. And the best place to start with that is to be a good example of a strong, self confident woman myself. Besides being their biggest cheerleader, I need to be their best example. 

Okay, on to the doughnuts. I thought it would be fun to start a tradition of having a special breakfast on the Sunday morning of conference. I pulled out my mom's doughnut recipe and thought that would be the perfect thing! I made the dough and waited patiently for them to rise, but to my great disappointment they never rose! The thing with many of my mom's recipes is that they are sort of old school. For example, they will call for lard instead of margarine or butter. In this case the recipe called for yeast cakes rather than packets. I figured that a cake was probably equivalent to a packet, but maybe I was wrong? Or, maybe the water was too hot when I added the yeast to activate it. I wasn't sure.

I stewed about my failed doughnuts through the entire morning session of conference and decided I was not going to be defeated. After lunch, I started round two of the doughnut making. I found a recipe online because I still wasn't sure about the whole yeast cake vs. packet thing. 

Round two went much better. The doughnuts rose and they turned out to be pretty tasty! They even tasted like the ones my mom used to make. So, I guess we can start this as a tradition after all. Whew!